Earlier this year, Susan Messina ’86, M.S.S. ’91, M.L.S.P. ’92, created a fake science fair poster that went viral on a variety of social media platforms. The poster, titled “How Much Turmoil Does the Science Project Cause Families?,” presented the findings the “everyone hates the science fair.” In response to the popularity of her fake poster, Messina wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post, describing the motive and reasons for the creation of her poster.

“I believe that STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields are crucial and that, in fact, more women should enter them. Rock on, young scientists and engineers! However, given the level of rage I have felt during the completion of my daughter’s science fair projects — and the overwhelmingly positive response my fake board has received — it seems there is something wrong with competitive, elementary school science fairs.”